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Hello ! Englisholic members !
This week we have three topics as follows !
- Trends : The 10 Most Controversial Topics for 2014
- Life style : Cut music to 'an hour a day' - WHO
- Science : Identical twin study shows regular exercise boosts grey matter
Enjoy your discussion !
With Luv
Scarlett
The 10 Most Controversial Topics for 2014
source : http://visual.ly/10-most-controversial-topics-2014
<Questions>
Q1. What was the most controversial topic for you among 10 issues last year?
Q2. What was the biggest issue last year in terms of your personal life?
Q3. Can you fall in love with someone at first sight? This infographic shows that men are
most likely to fall in love at first sight than woman. Do you agree with this result?
Q4. Do you support death penalty or do you think it should be abolished by the governmental law?
Q5. Do you know what the "Global warming" is? What kinds of small actions do you
carry out to protect the earth from the global warming?
Q6. How the smartphone application help us to enhance our healthcare activities?
Q7. Do you think Korea is famous for plastic surgery? What are the advantages and disadvantages of
this fact? Do you have any intention to take a surgery to get a better appearance?
Q8. Do you have any intention to preserve your stem cell to protect yourself from
unexpected functional failure of your body system?
Cut music to 'an hour a day' - WHO
People should listen to music for no more than one hour a day to protect their hearing, the World Health Organization suggests. It says 1.1 billion teenagers and young adults are at risk of permanently damaging their hearing by listening to "too much, too loudly". It said audio players, concerts and bars were posing a "serious threat".
WHO figures show 43 million people aged 12-35 have hearing loss and the prevalence is increasing.
In that age group, the WHO said, half of people in rich and middle-income countries were exposed to unsafe sound levels from personal audio devices. Meanwhile 40% were exposed to damaging levels of sound from clubs and bars.
The proportion of US teenagers with hearing loss went from 3.5% in 1994 to 5.3% in 2006.
WHO v The Who
Dr Etienne Krug, the WHO's director for injury prevention, told the BBC: "What we're trying to do is raise awareness of an issue that is not talked about enough, but has the potential to do a lot of damage that can be easily prevented."
The full report argued: "While it is important to keep the volume down, limiting the use of personal audio devices to less than one hour a day would do much to reduce noise exposure."
Dr Krug said that a good ambition aim: "That's a rough recommendation, it is not by the minute, to give an idea to those spending 10 hours a day listening to an mp3-player. "But even an hour can be too much if the volume is too loud."
Safe listening levels
Keep that vuvuzela away from me
The louder the noise (measured in decibels), the faster it damages the ear.
The WHO's safe listening times are:
85 dB - the level of noise inside a car - eight hours
90 dB - lawn mower - two hours 30 minutes
95 dB - an average motorcycle - 47 minutes
100 dB - car horn or underground train - 15 minutes
105 dB - mp3 player at maximum volume - four minutes
115 dB - loud rock concert - 28 seconds
120 dB - vuvuzela or sirens - nine seconds
The World Health Organization recommends keeping the volume to 60% of the maximum as a good rule of thumb.
For people trying to drown out the noise of flying or train journeys, it says noise-cancelling headphones allow music to be heard clearly at a lower volume.
And the WHO adds that ear plugs should be worn at noisy venues and advises taking "listening breaks" and standing far away from speakers at gigs.
But what is the point of a concert if you are going to avoid the music?
"We do realise this is a bit of a struggle, like alcohol consumption, so many risk factors linked to pleasure are not easy to change, but we have to make people aware," Dr Krug said.
But as well as calling for personal responsibility, the WHO says governments and manufacturers have a responsibility.
It says clubs should provide chill-out rooms and give out free ear plugs, headphone manufacturers should set limits on the volume, and governments need to adopt stricter laws.
Paul Breckell, the chief executive of the charity Action on Hearing Loss, said: 'When listening to loud music, for every three decibel increase in level, to stay safe you should halve your listening time.
"For example, at 88 dB, safe allowable exposure is cut to four hours, at 91 dB, two hours and so on.
"I urge music lovers to consider the long term risks of listening to loud music from their personal music players over the 85dB safe level, as over exposure can trigger tinnitus, and remember that a good pair of noise cancelling headphones can make all the difference."
Sources:
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-31661789
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/children-warned-to-not-listen-to-music-for-more-than-one-hour-a-day-10076200.html
<Questions>
Q1. What kind of music is best to listen to loud?
How many hours a day do you need to listen to music?
Q2. What kind of music should you never listen to at a high volume?
Q3. Do you think young people will listen to the WHO advice?
Q4. How good is listening to music through headphones?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of listening to music through headphones?
Q5. What do you think of people who listen to loud music in public?
Q6. What problems does noise pollution cause?
Identical twin study shows regular exercise boosts grey matter
Twins might share the same DNA and upbringing, but if one exercises more than the other as an adult, they'll likely have improved cognitive functions.
MYLES GOUGH 5 MAR 2015
Identical twins who play all the same sports as kids, but who adopt different exercise routines as adults, could develop very different bodies and brains, a new study suggests.
Researchers from the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland have conducted a small but intriguing study - dubbed FITFATTWIN - which highlights the role physical activity plays in regulating not only our health, but the structure of our brains.
By examining the divergent exercise habits of identical twins, the researchers showed that more active twins not only had better cardiovascular fitness than their sedentary siblings, they also had more grey matter, particularly in regions of the brain associated with motor control and coordination.
While physical activity and fitness are generally associated with a range of health benefits, such as reduced body fat, better cognitive function, and reduced prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart diseases, it’s actually quite difficult to pinpoint the long-term benefits of exercise.
As the researchers point out, long-term, randomised control studies in exercise science are difficult to organise, costly, and are limited by hard-to-account-for factors such as genetics and upbringing, both of which influence health, endurance and attitudes toward exercise.
So to measure the impact of lifestyle on health, they decided to focus on identical twins - individuals who share the exact same DNA and very similar past experiences.
To find their subjects, the researchers turned to the Finntwin16 study, which had collected behavioural and health information via surveys from a large cohort of Finnish twins over a number of years.
The team managed to locate 10 pairs of identical male twins from Finland in their early 30s that were of interest. Importantly, while the twins reported having similar diets, sometime within the last three years they had each adopted rather different exercise routines. Those that reported being less active said this was largely a result of work or family obligations.
The researchers invited the 10 sets of twins to their lab where they measured their height, weight and body fat, took blood samples to measure their insulin sensitivity and metabolic health, and they also took a brain scan.
Not only were the more active twins fitter, they were seen to be less susceptible to the onset of chronic diseases such as diabetes in later life. Furthermore, they also had more grey matter in their striatum and prefrontal cortex.
Gretchen Reynolds from The New York Times paraphrased her discussion with one of the study's authors: “Presumably, all of these differences in the young men’s bodies and brains had developed during their few, brief years of divergent workouts, underscoring how rapidly and robustly exercising - or not - can affect health, said Dr Urho Kujala… More subtly, the findings also point out that genes and environment ‘do not have to be’ destiny when it comes to exercise habits, Dr Kujala said.”
The team’s results were published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.
Source: The New York Times
<Questions>
Q1. Do you enjoy exercising? If yes, How long do you exercise per week?
What is the most frequently played sport by you?
Q2. After reading this article, what comes into your minds?
Q3. What kinds of exercising is the most useful tool to improve your brain functioning?
Do you have any recommendations?
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